Mississippi is located on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the southern United States, bordering Mexico to the south, Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, and Louisiana and Arkansas to the west.

Although written by the famous left-wing writer Mark Twain, its beautiful scenery is full of romanticism.

But in fact, this is the most economically backward, poorest, and most racially discriminatory place in the United States. It is also the place where various extremist organizations and cults breed.

In particular, Voodoo, which spread from Dahomey to Haiti and then from Haiti, has already taken root in this land.

Coupled with the vast land and sparse population, many poorly educated and very stubborn and stupid people are often full of inexplicable fanaticism towards religion and mysticism.

Some farms or ranches in the name of a certain sect are actually tools used by the cult to make money.

They directly treat so-called believers as free slaves in modern society, making them perform heavy physical labor every day without paying a penny, and they also brainwash them every day.

Men in the family are even induced to offer their wives and daughters to high-level leaders such as religious leaders to prove their devotion to "gods".

Of course, if it is just about amassing money and satisfying selfish desires, it is nothing. Although it is evil and despicable, it does not reach the level of expulsion.

However, among the many cults, a small number are truly mentally disturbed and engage in a series of cruel and insane rituals including human sacrifice and suicide.

Coupled with the BUFF bonus of the proliferation of guns, the poor local police force does not even dare to take care of it.

As long as no big trouble is caused and exposed by the media, the two sides are basically in a state of harmony.

In some places, the police are simply members of the cult, specifically providing cover for the organization and providing important information in a timely manner.

If they were just a group of lunatics and lunatics armed with weapons, they would be nothing to S.H.I.E.L.D., which was backed by the Security Council. They could be easily eliminated by randomly dispatching two special operations teams.

But the question is, what if someone among these cults accidentally gets supernatural powers?

At this moment, in the barn of an abandoned farm, Coulson and a group of agents stood in front of a "Tree of Life" pieced together with mutilated corpses, staring at this bloody and cruel "artwork" with a pale face.

”.

Especially the young pregnant woman who was nailed to the front with a large font, her face actually showed a strange happy smile.

After careful observation and testing, an autopsy examiner responsible for providing technical support reported in a heavy tone with a hint of horror: "These corpses should have died three days ago, and they should have been resuscitated while still alive."

The dismemberment was prevented from decaying due to the action of some unknown energy."

"What? Dismember them alive! Then what's with the weird expressions on their faces? Could it be that these people can't feel pain? Or are they taking a lot of hallucinogens and anesthetics?" Colson asked with a frown.

road.

"Sorry, the specific cause is not yet clear, but there are no signs of drug use found in the blood residues."

The technician quickly gave a negative answer.

Although as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had seen many "shocking" scenes before, this was the first time for him to experience such a mind-numbing thing.

If nothing else, I'm afraid I'm going to receive psychological counseling after this field mission.

Otherwise, I might have to live with nightmares for weeks or even months.

"Damn it! This is already the fourth incident this month, and the number of deaths every time is more than thirty. If this cult organization cannot be found and eliminated quickly, the situation will definitely get worse and worse."

Clint Barton couldn't help but curse in a low voice.

As the number one hitter in the bureau, it is natural that he would not be absent from a task like this that requires a strong personal presence.

In fact, Hawkeye has participated in more than seven operations related to supernatural forces in the past month or two, and each time he has played an unexpected and key role.

Through research, copying, and reverse engineering of certain black technologies and magic items, some of the arrows he used were able to penetrate various low-level shields.

And this is exactly what firearms cannot do.

Coulson ignored Hawkeye who was venting his emotions, but directly asked the divine monk with the title of consultant: "Mr. Balthazar, can you get any useful clues from these broken corpses?"

"Well - how should I put it, although I don't know much about magic, I can still tell that all the corpses have been blessed with necromancy spells.

As for whether it is arcane magic, divine magic, or some kind of spell-like ability, it is not easy to judge yet.

But what is certain is that all these ritual actions may be related to sacrifice.

If I guess correctly, they should be trying to twist the souls of these dead and create a god of their own."

Balthazar expressed his judgment expressionlessly.

"What? Create a god!"

Colson's expression suddenly changed.

Because he already knew through previous visits that even the weakest god has the ability to easily destroy a planet.

If one of these things appeared on Earth, the consequences would be absolutely catastrophic.

When Balthazar saw this, he immediately smiled and waved his hand: "Don't be nervous, the god I am referring to here is not a god in the true sense, but the god that this cult thinks it is.

Its real name should be some kind of powerful magical creature, a cursed creature to be precise.

Maybe given enough time, such a cursed creature will continue to absorb twisted souls and fanatical beliefs and gradually gain divinity, and then become a terrifying evil god."

Coulson was obviously relieved to hear that he was not a real god, and continued to ask: "Then how difficult do you think this cursed creature is to deal with?"

"It depends on whether it's a spirit or a physical entity.

Usually, those with entities are slightly easier to deal with.

At least that's how it looks to you.

But if it is a spirit body, weapons such as firearms will be useless, and only magic and energy can really cause damage to it.

In addition, as a cursed creature, it should have many spell-like abilities.

For example, a terrible curse is instantly placed on a person, causing him to lose strength, physique, agility and other attributes, turning him from a healthy strong man into a weak person who can even walk out of breath.

Another example is to draw life force and strength through touch, which will lead to death after a few touches.

The most terrifying thing is that once it enters a densely populated city and goes on a killing spree, it only needs to kill tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people before its power quickly expands to unimaginable levels.

When millions of people in a city die..."

Speaking of this, Balthazar paused and deliberately did not say the final conclusion, but the implication was already very obvious.

With so many souls, so many fears, resentments and other negative emotions gathered together, even if you cannot become a god, you will become something like a divine evil or an ancient evil.

You must know that in the continent of Faerun, sacrificing thousands to tens of thousands of people in a city can cause extremely serious consequences, not to mention that modern society on earth often has large urban circles with a scale of millions or tens of millions, and there is a lot of darkness.

, rotten, fallen soul.

"Fake!"

Realizing the seriousness of the problem, even a good old man like Coulson couldn't help but swore, then turned around and roared at his subordinates: "Quick! Investigate all the people within a radius of fifty kilometers for me immediately.

Surveillance video! No matter who these guys are, I want to know their whereabouts within twenty-four hours!"

"Yes, sir!"

The agents were obviously frightened by the horrific scene described by Balthazar. They did not dare to waste even a second and immediately rushed out and drove to a nearby place equipped with surveillance cameras.

Since this area happens to be a vast area of ​​farms and pastures, there are very few residents and surveillance cameras, so just scanning them would take some time.

Fortunately, after Coulson reported the situation, SHIELD immediately sent additional manpower.

To be exact, Nick Fury was so frightened that he almost jumped out of his chair when he learned about this.

Especially in magic-related fields, SHIELD currently has very little information, which can even be described as almost none.

This means that they must believe 100% what Balthazar says.

Because no one dares to bet on whether this matter will develop into the worst case scenario.

After all the agents left the barn on the farm and started to act separately, Colson rubbed his face vigorously, which was getting older and older due to overtime work, staying up late, and anxiety every day, and subconsciously wanted to turn around and talk to Barcelona

Get some knowledge about this.

As a result, I saw that the other party was playing with the mobile phone he had just received, and seemed to be chatting with someone.

This relaxed attitude undoubtedly left him quite speechless, and he kept complaining in his heart that the situation in the bureau was about to explode, but the other party still acted like nothing was wrong, but he still couldn't help but ask: "Who are you chatting with?

?”

Barcelona responded without raising his head: "My exclusive assistant."

"Do you have a dedicated assistant?"

Colson opened his mouth in surprise.

After all, these days, he has been following this messenger from another world almost every day, but he has never seen him recruit assistants or subordinates.

"It was those banks that equipped me with it.

You should know that my deposits in several banks have reached tens of billions of dollars, so I can enjoy the most advanced services.

And this exclusive assistant is one of them.

In fact, I now have almost a dozen dedicated assistants. No matter what I want to do, I just need to give them a call and it will be done.

Even if it’s buying a plane or a luxury yacht.”

Balthazar said something in a careless tone that could irritate people to death.

Even an agent like Coulson, who was professionally trained and didn't care much about money, suddenly felt panicked, but he still had to force a smile and probed: "What are you talking about? Is it about investment or finance?

Stocks, bonds and the like, right?”
To be continued...